Monday, January 17, 2005

The Depolarizing Power of the Blogosphere

James D Miller believes that although the Blogosphere can politically polarize audiences, in the end it will reduce political differences among Americans. Why? Because the web is replete with blogs that bypass traditional ideological divides and, like the best Internet dating services, engage individuals who share opinions on certain issues but vary on others. This is the best way to open up more democratic discourse, Miller argues, and to test one's own political views. In doing so, blogs can begin to disassemble traditional media's bi-partisan divide, which often sees everyone as following one or the other party line.

Miller's own line contradicts that of Cass R. Sunstein, who argues that the process of web "filtering" segregates people into more isolated niche communities -- where they're exposed to very few other opinions and become ever more entrenched with their narrow beliefs.

1 comment:

Steve J. said...

Miller thinks that because some wingnut comes across Sullivan, his eyes will open. This is preposterous. The entire point of the Republican Lie Machine is to insulate people from the facts and the Internet will play into this.

The good thing is that the Left has pretty much the same access to the Net as the lying ass Right (e.g., Hewitt, Freepers, etc). As a matter of fact, Miller is also a lying ass: The NYT is far from being liberal.